


Weightless

by feathers_and_cigarettes



Series: Days Gone By [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Pining!Spike, Prequel, REO Speedwagon - Freeform, Road Trips, Superpower!Xander, Telepathy, Timestamp, Xander has minor gay freakout, alternate universe from end of season 5, spoilers through The Gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:18:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7762864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feathers_and_cigarettes/pseuds/feathers_and_cigarettes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a timestamp/prequel to a larger BtVS/Angel the Series/Supernatural crossover, but it also functions as a stand-alone fic. That fic will be linked as soon as I get off my ass and post it. Post 5x22 "The Gift," Xander leaves Sunnydale after the deaths of Anya and Buffy to find answers about his developing mental abilities and a pining Spike tags along for the roadtrip.</p>
<p>Spike has a John Cusack moment. Xander wonders where he went wrong with his life. An unexpected future ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weightless

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to @ofelvesandmusings on tumblr for being a fantastic beta and boyfriend and putting up with my Spander babbling despite not actually having seen up to The Gift when he beta'd this for me. I have not written Spander in many years, but they firmly remain my OTP of choice. This is a prequel to "Days Gone By," a larger BtVS/AtS/SPN crossover that will be linked when I post it, but for now, this can be read as a standalone fic. Cameo by everyone's favourite angel's meatsuit as well.
> 
> Comments welcome. I can be found on tumblr under @crippledhockwalker.

Weightless  
Timestamp/prequel to Days Gone By (BtVS/AtS/SPN crossover) 

 

February 2003 - Pontiac, Illinois, 1:17am  
_"I wanna feel reckless_  
_I wanna live it up, just because_  
_I wanna feel weightless_  
_'Cause that would be enough."_  
_-"Weightless" All Time Low_

 

Xander Harris wasn't quite sure why he thought he'd finally get some peace and quiet in an Illinois town in the middle of winter. The motel he'd picked was far enough from the town centre that he was able to find relative peace from the mental congestion that came with heavily populated cities and towns, but it was far from comfortable. His southern California-raised body wasn't prepared for the northern midwest in the middle of a snowstorm and he shivered unhappily under the thin comforter. The heater sputtered and creaked as it struggled to warm the poorly insulated room and Xander briefly debated if it was worth climbing out from the relative warmth of the covers to check the thermostat for the third time. 

Melatonin had stopped working some two months back. Xander wasn't sure if his body was just becoming resistant to anything but prescription drugs (which fucked with his mental shields) or if his telepathy was getting worse. Not for the first time, he wondered how he had managed to last as long as he had without going insane. Buffy had lasted a scant couple of days before succumbing to the constant mental noise; Xander's telepathy had manifested a year and a half previous, jump-started by Willow's mind linking spell during the battle with Glory. At first he had thought he was going crazy, some weird side effect of grief at losing Anya, but it had grown impossible to ignore as the months passed. He hadn't told anyone about his abilities save for Spike - the sole person around him whose thoughts he couldn't constantly hear. When he left California four months ago on some mad road trip in a frantic effort to find sanctuary, the blond vampire had been waiting for him in his car.  


Xander and Spike had developed a tentative friendship after The Battle, one born from grief and copious amounts of alcohol. Both men had lost loved ones and with Spike's presence came mental silence for Xander. He wasn't, however, prepared for Spike's failed attempts at courtship shortly after they left Sunnydale. Xander had been trying to lose his lovesick, undead companion since somewhere around Tucson. True to form, Spike had remained determined and had the unfortunate tendency to show up at the worst possible times and attempt to poke holes into Xander's already threadbare heterosexuality.

  


And really, with everything else going on in his life, Xander didn't need help in that department, thankyouverymuch.

  


With a groan, Xander buried his face into his pillow. He was never going to get to sleep. Maybe this was how telepaths died, why he could never locate any telepaths over the age of thirty. Not that he had managed to locate many, but the few he had been able to speak to were all in their twenties and most were heavily medicated. Or completely insane, like the one guy back in Van Nuys. He'd succumb like the rest of them eventually, he conceded darkly. All the apocalypses, plural, he'd help divert surely had to give him brownie points with whomever The Man Upstairs was; death by insanity was definitely unfair at this point.

  


Did insanity start with REO Speedwagon?

  


Xander's eyes snapped open and he slammed up every mental barrier he knew how to erect before he realised the faint music was coming from outside. Throwing back the comforter, he cautiously stepped out of bed and quietly debated if he should grab his gun or the water pistol filled with holy water. Would he need silver bullets? He tried frantically to remember what the lunar cycle was, but really, he had mostly stopped paying attention to that after Oz had skipped town. Nothing seemed to be tripping his new Spidey-senses, but there were plenty of baddies that he couldn't get a read on.

  


Cautiously, he flattened himself to the wall next to the window and flicked the corner of the curtain aside. On the ground level, standing on the hood of Xander's car, was a figure in a black duster whose hair glowed almost neon in the stained yellow light of the motel. With visibly trembling hands, he held a small CD player - where the hell he got one, Xander had no idea - above his head and sang loudly along to the music.

  


"And even as I wander, I'm keeping you in sight. You're a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter's night. And I'm getting -"

  


Xander yanked the curtain aside and shoved the window open. "You don't even like that song," he called down to the vampire. "And get the fuck off my car."

  


Spike stopped singing and scowled up at the dark haired man, his normally chilling glare made slightly pathetic by the snow on his nose and the shivering of his shoulders. "It's a _classic_ , you heathen," he retorted.

  


"You've been getting wooing tips from John Cusack movies and _I'm_ the heathen?"

  


The CD player switched off and Spike tucked it under his arm. Somewhere between Wisconsin and Illinois, the vampire had crossed the line from not-even-kinda-naughty to maybe-kind-of-adorable. He leveled an impressive pout in Xander's direction and hopped off the car, his booted feet sliding a bit in the slush as he hit the ground. Xander sighed and shut his eyes. "Room 206."

  


Well that certainly wasn't what he had intended to say.

  


The knock on the door came before Xander could even form a coherent thought or start berating himself for going soft. Supernatural speed was simply unfair. He shut the window and readjusted the curtains before running his hands through his getting-too-long hair. Spike had been stealing his wallet every time he had attempted to get a haircut since they left Sunnydale and Xander had given up trying somewhere around Utah. It seemed to be a theme on this road trip to nowhere - giving in to Spike so he could have some semblance of sanity.

  


The door handle rattled ominously. "Harris, I can pick the lock."

  


Fuck it. Xander strode across the small room and undid the latch, yanking the door open. "It's a key card, Bleach Boy," he grumbled as Spike shoved his way past the larger man and into the room. Throwing a casual prayer to anyone who might have pity on a poor human saddled with a lovesick vampire, Xander shut and locked the door once more. He leaned his broad frame against the door and crossed his arms with a scowl. "I'd ask what you want, but I really don't want to hear the answer to that."

  


Spike snorted and stripped off his duster. "Don't ask stupid questions then," he replied. The heavy Doc Marten boots were kicked unceremoniously into a corner. "This heater go up any higher?"

  


"No."

  


"Bloody shame," Spike sighed, his gaze drifting from the heater to roam over Xander, who was starting to feel a bit exposed. A leer crossed the vampire's face. "Y'know, there are other ways to keep warm," he said slowly, stalking toward the larger man.

  


Xander held his ground, though instantly regretted deciding to go to bed clad in only his Tweety Bird boxers. Regrettable life choices, thy name was Alexander Harris. "You have no body heat," he managed to grit out as Spike invaded his personal space. He briefly eyeballed the distance between the door and the nightstand, debating making a dive for the holy water pistol he had stashed into the drawer.

  


"Semantics," Spike said with a casual shrug of one shoulder. Xander tried not to notice the vampire's lean muscle moving under the tight fabric and he swallowed heavily. A pale hand reached up to track the movement of Xander's throat. "You know I can't hurt you, right, Harris?" he asked softly.

  


Three strides, that was all he needed to get to the drawer. Wide brown eyes flicked from half lidded blue to the nightstand and back again as Xander's upstairs brain commenced a knock down, drag out fight with his downstairs one. He knew what would win out, what always won out, which was why he was only half surprised when he hooked two fingers into the waistband of Spike's jeans and pulled the smaller man flush against him. "That's not really what I'm worried about," he murmured before sealing his mouth against Spike's.

  


Turns out, kissing is a great way to get annoying vampires to shut up.

  


To his credit, Spike only froze for a second before bracketing his arms on either side of Xander's head and wedging a thigh between the larger man's legs. Xander groaned into Spike's mouth as all the space between them vanished. He brought one hand up to fist as best he could into the vampire's overly gelled hair as they fought into the kiss, teeth clashing and nipping with bruising force. Everything between Xander and Spike had always been about conflict: whether it had been before Spike had gotten chipped, when they had shared Xander's basement flat, or even just last week when they bickered over the radio on the way to the Midwest. It seemed this would be no different.

  


Spike growled deep in his throat as Xander trailed his lips across the sweep of Spike's jaw, nipping just under the vampire's ear. Taking advantage of the smaller man's momentary faltering, Xander shoved forward and walked Spike backward until the backs of the vampire's knees hit the bed and he collapsed on top of it. Xander was on top of him in an instant, sucking a bruising kiss into the juncture of the vampire's neck and shoulder. He could feel Spike's fingernails scrabbling at his back, digging into the broad muscles of his shoulders and he let out a decidedly unmanly whimper into Spike's skin. Goodbye heterosexuality.

  


Xander tugged at the hem of Spike's t-shirt, rocking back only to yank it over the vampire's head before nipping at Spike's lips once more. Spike's skin was cool, as Xander expected, but it wasn't the weird feeling he had anticipated as he let his fingertips trace the lean muscles across the other man's chest. Another growl ripped through Spike's throat as Xander ghosted his fingers across the ridges of Spike's abdominal muscles and Xander decided he absolutely needed to hear that sound again.

  


He hadn't realised how much he had missed physical contact, how tactile he had always been with those close to him. With his awakening telepathy, touch carried with it feelings and emotions and foreign thoughts that overwhelmed Xander, making it impossible for him to have any sort of sustained physical contact, platonic or otherwise. Here with Spike though, none of that was an issue: something about vampire thoughts not being able to be casually reflected into a psychic's mind and the telepath had no intention of probing a demonic mind for any reason. As a result, here Xander found himself, sucking a bruise into the hollow of Spike's throat like a starving man.

  


"Harris," Spike bit out, hips snapping up to meet Xander's. Both men groaned at the friction and Spike's fingers dipped into the waistband of Xander's still-embarassing boxer shorts.

  


"Is this a bad time to tell you I haven't done this before? 'Cause I haven't done this before. I mean, I've had the sex before but-" Xander's babbling cut off into a moan as Spike pressed the heel of his hand against the base of his cock and slid upward, thumb swiping across the head. Yeah. It had really been too long. His hands clenched around Spike's hips hard enough to bruise and he rolled his hips down and-oh. _That_ was a new sensation; the feeling of another erection, denim-clad though it was, alongside his own definitely hit a mental turn on Xander had no idea he had and he scrabbled at the crotch of Spike's jeans, swearing into the vampire's mouth at the hated button fly.

  


"Slow down, pet," Spike murmured against the larger man's lips as he pumped loosely at Xander's erection. He shifted slightly under Xander, his free hand coming up to deftly undo the buttons on his jeans and he lifted his hips to help slide them down to tangle just below his knees. "Can't get up to anything too fancy anyway, unless you brought lube."

  


Xander's brain momentarily short-circuited as his mind caught up to the fact that he was currently tugging the pants off another dude, and an undead dude at that. One that apparently didn't wear underwear. He swallowed heavily and rocked back on his heels, his gaze travelling slowly up Spike's naked form. The vampire was all lithe muscle, lightly built compared to Xander's construction-built bulk, yet Xander's arousal refused to die down despite having previously only been with women. Sucking in a breath, Xander mentally gave his dick the finger and shoved his boxers down, kicking them off his feet.

  


Spike chuckled, a low rumble from deep in his chest that did _things_ to Xander's brain. "Liking what you see, then?" The vampire reached out to trail a hand down the younger man's broad chest, following the swell of pectoral muscles and down across his abdomen before reaching the heavy erection.

  


"Spike," Xander gasped at the maddeningly light touch. He was painfully hard, more so than he ever remembered being with Anya and Spike had barely even touched him. Lust-darkened brown eyes met teasing blue and they were back to being pressed full length together, both men moaning into one another's mouths at the skin to skin contact. Xander wasn't going to last long at this rate, he realised with embarrassing clarity.

  


Thankfully, Spike seemed to take pity on Xander and, with an amused snort, wormed one hand in between their bodies and took them both in hand. Xander let out an embarrassingly unmanly cry and bucked his hips forward, desperately seeking more of the silky smooth slide of Spike's cock against his own. Both were leaking enough fluid to further ease the path for Spike's hand and Xander couldn't get enough. The vampire himself was making slightly feral sounding noises underneath the younger man, blunt teeth scraping against Xander's day old stubble along his jaw and down to his throat.

  


Had Xander been capable of any kind of complex thought processes, he probably would have picked up on the Exceptionally Bad Idea before he did it, but one Alexander LaVelle Harris had never really been good under peer pressure. What he did instead was tilt his head to one side, allowing the still-as-far-as-he-knew chipped vampire better access to his neck and instinctively reached out mentally for Spike's mind.

  


Pleasure hit him like a physical blow. Dual sensations assaulted Xander's senses and he promptly lost what was left of his control. He pushed his feelings out toward Spike, creating a feedback loop of pleasure and emotions that were likely too intense to focus on until morning. Xander was vaguely aware of Spike snarling a moan into his neck as the younger man thrust roughly into Spike's fist, single-mindedly driving them both over the edge. There wasn't any more knowledge of _Spike_ or _Xander_ , there was just teeth and tongues and skin and glorious friction as the pair rutted frantically, completely lost to the totality of the mental link.

  


They toppled over the cliff as one. Xander bit down into the corded muscle at the base of Spike's neck as he came, the vampire roaring out his completion with him and eyes flashing gold. The joint climax broke the intensity of the mental connection and Xander was able to reluctantly disengage from Spike's mind, leaving the older man with a psychic caress that Xander would absolutely deny ever having done once he came down off post-sex endorphins. He collapsed bonelessly onto Spike's chest and grimaced a bit as he came into contact with the rapidly cooling fluid coating the vampire's skin. Downsides to gay sex, apparently.

  


"You're lucky I don't need to breathe, love," Spike murmured into Xander's hair.

  


"Mrphf." Yeah. Xander was an eloquent bastard when it came to post-coital pillow talk.

  


A throaty chuckle told him that Spike appreciated the sentiment. Strong hands gripped his shoulders, firmly but gently rolling Xander over onto his back. A pillow was thrust under his head before he hit the mattress and a slight creak told him Spike had left the bed. Xander whinged softly in protest – once again, something he'd strongly deny ever doing – and cracked one eye open. Spike was standing at the foot of the bed, wiping his chest and abdomen down with what looked suspiciously like Xander's Tweety Bird boxers. The vampire's face was softened with a smile, making him look shockingly young.

  


Something tightened in Xander's chest as he met Spike's unwavering gaze and returned the older man's smile with a faint one of his own. Maybe there were perks to this whole psychic superpowers business.

  


~*~*~*~

  


The next evening found Xander and Spike bickering over various newspaper articles on the city limits of Pontiac. Spike was wrapped in both his duster and Xander's old heavy jacket that he had managed to dig out of the trunk when Xander was checking out of the motel and was gesturing emphatically to an article about a psychic convention in Kansas of all places. The loud, bleached Brit drew curious stares to their table, but nothing could shake the feeling of contentment that radiated through Xander for the first time in a what seemed like a year.

  


He was happy; inexplicably, possibly insanely, happy after a sexuality crisis and having literal mind blowing sex with a vampire. Twice, thanks to the repeat performance an hour earlier. Xander was fairly sure the apocalypse was likely imminent, but Lucifer could walk the earth at that very moment and he wouldn't have cared.

  


Fingers snapped in front of Xander's face, breaking his reverie and amused blue eyes met his from across the table. "Ground control to Major Harris," Spike barked as he unashamedly stole the last of the bacon from Xander's plate with a gleeful grin. "Kansas?" Xander kicked him under the table. Spike wasn't magically not irritating now that they had sex.

  


Xander tentatively lowered his mental shields and scanned the diner; a young father was watching them curiously but not judging. His wife was a pretty blonde who smiled at him the way Spike now smiled at Xander, and the toddler between them laughed delightedly as her father started peek-a-boo with his tan trenchcoat. None of the family seemed to notice Xander's slight mental prodding and the telepath sat back with a satisfied nod. He was getting more subtle and his shields stronger.

  


"Yeah, Kansas," Xander agreed, digging out his wallet and dropping several bills on the formica table top. "There's a butcher that should be open on the way to the freeway according to," he scanned the young father once more, "Jimmy, over there."

  


Spike nodded, giving a sly wink to Jimmy who blinked rapidly in confusion, and slid out of the seat. He reached out and hesitantly took Xander's hand, a question forming on his face as the normally quick-witted vampire was momentarily at a loss for words. Fortunately for Spike, there were some perks to psychic superpowers and Xander responded to his unspoken question with a mental caress and a squeeze of his hand.

  


A weight Xander didn't realise had been there was lifted off his chest. And that was enough.


End file.
